Marco's Bizarre Adventures
by GreyFang82
Summary: After Marco's talk with Tad, he realized that he does need time away from Star to think over his feelings. However, during his soul-searching he is trapped in a new and dangerous dimension with Stands, Hamon, and Vampires! Marco must now become the hero the town needs. This story heavily centers Marco, Original Characters, and Jojo themes. Note: There won't be any Jojo Characters.
1. Chapter 1

Marco was quietly sitting in his room. He was deep in thought about what Tad had told him. Is he torturing himself by hanging out with Star? He wasn't sure, but he did know he felt something when he saw Tom and Star hanging out the way they are. But he also knew he had no right to say anything to her about it. HE was the one to burst into her life unannounced and uninvited, so HE had to deal with it himself.

Marco felt very confused and conflicted with his feelings about Star, he knew he was jealous. But was it because Tom was basically dating Star, or was it that he isn't as close to her as he was before.

" **Gah**!" Marco exclaimed aloud while falling flat onto his bed, "This is so **frustrating**! I just want time to think about all this!" After a moment in thought, Marco lifted himself from his bed with a smile on his face, he had an idea! He took out his dimensional scissors and focused. "If I need time to think, then going to another dimension for a bit might help! I could go to another dimension's timeline for a bit and then come back in like… an hour or something," However the only problem is that he didn't know what dimension to go to. He ruled out Hekapoo's as he didn't want to annoy her for just popping up in her home unannounced. He shrugged his shoulders, he decided to just open a portal and hope it would work out. But before he left, he locked his door to make it seemed like he was out somewhere in the kingdom, just to throw off any curious souls that might come his way.

Marco took a deep breath and stabbed the fabric of space with his scissors and pulled down, leaving a portal in front of him. He tightened his grip of his scissors and walked through, confident in his decision.

When Marco walked through the portal he was met with a refreshing breeze, and a beautiful green forest with flowers sprinkled here and there. After taking in the sight he smiles, right before closing the portal behind him. He turned around and decided to just take a walk through the woods and take in the calming atmosphere. As he did so he took notice to how bizarre the colors of the flowers were, the best comparison was an iridescent-like color, regardless he enjoyed it and decided there was no harm in taking one with him. He quickly plucked it and put it into his pant's pockets and continued his walk. But as he did so, he missed the freshly plucked flower had already grew its stem and pedals back as if nothing had happened.

-A Few Hours Later-

Marco was deep in thought as he walked through the woods, so deep in fact, he hadn't even noticed the sky growing dark and how the once peaceful and bright forest turned into a very dark and heavily shadowed area. "Ugh…" he groaned to himself "I thought taking a trip would help me, but it just making it worse! I'm overthinking everything now!" he let out a very loud and frustrated yell before falling on the grass under him. He looked up at the stars in the sky as he laid there. After a good five minutes of just laying there he grunted and picked himself up and grabbing his dimensional scissors from his pants. However, as he did so he heard a rustle off in the distance. Marco stopped dead in his tracks and looked to the direction of the sound, and despite his better judgement went to investigate. Oh how he wished he didn't.

Marco audibly gasped as he saw the scene in front of him, it seemed like something straight out of a horror movie. A man was hunched over a horribly mangled and broken doe, and the man had impaled the poor beast's throat with his five digits with a completely psychopathic grin. Marco tried to run, his brain yelled for his body to run, and yet… it didn't… it couldn't. He could only watch as the deer seemingly vanished bit by bit, ounce by ounce, and by the time he finished it had been a good five minutes. When the man noticed him he turned toward him with piercing, blood red eyes and a twisted grin that stretched across his face in a completely inhuman way. The moment the man took a step towards him, his body flooded him with adrenaline and he took a 180 and dashed the other way. But before he could gain any momentum he was face to face with the man. "How'd yo-" but before he could even finish his sentence he was met with a swipe to the face. Marco was able to reel back and escape the first blow but failed to see the second strike in time. That was a mistake.

Marco was sent flying from the creature's terrible strength! The hit was so powerful that he was sent through four whole tree trunks. Marco tried to pull himself up, but his body simply refused. He took a second to look at his injuries, he clearly had a broken arm, a few broken ribs, and he was pretty sure his liver was ruptured, But despite the obvious pain that would come from such injuries, he felt numb from the sight of the man walking up to him, wearing the same horrid smile he first saw. That smile was enough motivation to get Marco on his feet. The Man then began to rush him head on, but this is what Marco was counting on. The moment the man got into range, he let loose a flying kick to the temple of the man's head. Marco landed hard on his side, the pain rushed throughout his body. he was confused on why he fell, but taking a good look at his leg, he quickly realized why. The man not only caught Marco's leg mid-air, he also had his fingers sunk deeply into his leg. Marco could only let loose a blood-curtailing scream from, not just his leg getting stabbed, but from his adrenaline's high finally fading. He tried to resist the man the best he could. But it was useless, he felt his consciousness start to fade, and the only sensation he could still feel was the suction on his legs.

Everything started to dull, his sense of touch, his sense of smell, his sense of taste, his sense of logic. But before his sense of hearing could give out, he heard a single muffled phrase just before falling unconscious. And then. Nothing.


	2. Chapter 2

Marco could only see darkness. He didn't know how long he sat there, in the enveloping void. It could have been minutes, hours, even days. Marco could only sit there, that was until it started, the voices. The voices started as low hum, but the hum turned into whispering, and the whispering turned into shouting. And then silence. Marco felt as if his mind was on the verge of breaking in half. But then, he noticed it. Red. Two small red dots. When Marco saw it he broke into a sweat knowing full well what those red dots were. The eyes slowly made their way to towards him. Marco was hyperventilating now, it got worse as the dots got closer and the voices returned. As the eyes moved closer, the louder the voices. And louder, and louder, and louder, until…

Marco woke up screaming at the top of his lungs. It took him a second to realize he wasn't in the woods anymore. Rather he was in a small cottage, sitting up in a modest bed. Marco tried to get up, but his movements rekindled the horrid pain of his ruptured liver and broken ribs. "Now just hold one second there sonny" an older voice spoke "you're no where close to bein' fully healed". Marco turned toward the direction of the voice, only to be met with an old man, in what seemed like monk robes, disposing of used bloody bandages. The boy looked at the man then took a second to check on his own well being. His entire abdomen, his leg, and his broken arm was bandaged up with fresh cloth. The young man asked the elder what happened. "You were attacked by a vampire, kid" Marco eyes shot open in disbelief. "What did you say?" Marco asked "I said you were attacked by a vampire" the man replied. Marco groaned before responding "that's what I was afraid you said…". Marco fell back into the bed, he was way too exhausted from his encounter to question what attacked him.

After some time passed the man began to talk again, "Yeah, you're lucky I heard your girly screams" The Old man told Marco teasingly. Marco laughed at his comment "So you're telling me, **you** saved my life?" Marco quickly caught himself and tilted his head down in shame. He had just insulted what could have well been the man to keep him from croaking that night. The old man however met his comment with a hardy chuckle, "I wouldn't blame you in not believin' me, sonny." The man then came to the side of the bed with a bowl of water and some towels. The took a minute to place the towels in the water and then wrapping around Marco's broken arm, and when doing so Marco could feel the pain in his arm numb a bit. "Sorry for not fixing up your arm or ribs yet" The Man said "I was focusin' my efforts on keepin' your liver from bein' ripped in half." Marco looked at him perplexed. "And how'd you manage to do that?" Marco asked the man. The man smiled before taking a deep breath. He reached for Marco's abdomen, as he did so Marco pulled away and asked "what are you doing?" The man replied "Healin' you what do you think?" "How's is grabbing the wounded area going to help me?" Marco shot back. The old man answered "with Hamon, kid." Marco shot another confused look at the man. "Look kid, every second we wait the more likely your liver's gonna split open again." Marco shut his mouth and laid back letting the man do what he needed to heal him. The man put his hand over Marco's liver before letting out his breath. Marco felt, what he could only describe as, electric volts flow through his body. The pain in his abdomen subsided a bit from the man's actions.

A good ten minutes passed with a pattern of soaking towels and Hamon treatments before the old man man wiped his forehead and spoke. "Well, your liver should be fine now, and your ribs should be alright too." Marco lifted his hoodie and felt his abdomen, his ribs felt good as new! "Gee! Thanks uh..." Marco's voiced trailed off from not knowing the man's name. "Antonio" the old man said. "You can call me Antonio." Marco was caught off with the name sounding so... normal "Well... thank you Antonio, you really saved my skin back there." Marco then realized he must have been unconscious for a while and asked Antonio how long he's been out of commission. "You've been out cold for a good nine hours". Marco's jaw dropped in awe "I've been out for nine hours!" Marco stopped for a moment to do the math, he had been out in the woods for at least another four hours for it to have gotten so dark out... He had to have been gone a little more than half a day. Marco jumped out of the bed as quickly as possible "Look Antonio I really appreciate all you've done for me, but I have to leave right no-" Marco reached into his pockets while he was talking to get out his dimensional scissors when he realized, he didn't have it...


	3. Chapter 3

Marco's jaw hung open in shock as he realized how big of a mistake this whole idea was. Antonio asked Marco what the problem was. "My dimensional scissors! I must have left them in the forest somewhere," Marco said back in a panicked tone, "We have to go back and find it or else I'm stuck here!" Marco quickly turned to the door when Antonio called for him to wait. "It's still dark out kid! If you go back out there by yourself, you might run into another one of those thin's!" but before the man could even reach the door Marco had disappeared into the forest. "Damn it, that kid must have some kinda death wish!" The man said to himself before booking it after the teen.

Marco tried to steal glances of the forest around him as he ran but couldn't recognize any of the trees or paths at all. It was a cycle of running in a random direction and stopping to look for a few seconds then running again. After a good twenty minutes of repeating this cycle Marco was left gasping for breath and feeling utterly lost. "I…I have no clue where I am… or where I left the scissors…" Marco mumbled to himself as he took a seat by the nearest tree to try and catch his breath. "Why…why did I have to go off in some random dimension without back up… why am I such an idiot…" Marco could only stare off into the distance and think about how he may have just screwed himself over for good. However, in that moment of self-pity, Marco was suddenly overwhelmed by sense of fear. The feeling was one Marco was familiar with and in that moment quickly dived to his right just in time to avoid an attack he didn't even see coming! The tree he was leaning on was completely smashed to bits and a good portion of it's trunk was sent flying into a handful of other trees. Marco quickly turned to be face to face with a creature not unlike the one he first encountered in this dimension. Marco quickly ducked and rolled again to avoid another attack moving way too fast for him to even perceive. Marco saw a moment of vulnerability to the creature and instantly threw a kick… and it connected! The creature was hit dead on chin by the full body kick causing it to take a step back. But despite the creature staggering back from the kick, it quickly shrugged off the attack and went for a grab at Marco's leg, Marco then quickly used his still extended foot to push himself away from the beast. However, the momentum of the push caused him to crash into the nearest tree with his back. Marco didn't even have time to think before he slide down the tree and inadvertently avoided another attack from the creature. The attack was one with the creature's claws, the force of the cut was enough to cleave straight through the tree with no trouble what-so-ever, and one that would have killed Marco easily. Marco used both his legs to push the creature away from himself and onto the ground to buy enough time to get up. Marco saw the creature finally get up on his knees and threw a punch to try and catch the monster off guard. The creature easily grabbed the punch and looked Marco in the eyes. The creature smiled, showing off its horrid mouth and glowing red eyes. Marco froze up and before he could do anything, the monster crushed Marco's hand like a Ritz cracker.

Marco's scream was something that could truly rupture a person's eardrum, but no matter how loud he screamed it wouldn't be enough to stop this beast. In that moment Marco's whole body was flooded by adrenaline. Marco quickly then slammed his forehead into the beast's nose in a last-ditch effort to break free from its grip. The nose let loose a loud and audible crunch followed by the creature's grip loosening enough for Marco to slip away.

Marco ran with all his might while screaming out for help. As Marco tried to keep his speed constant he heard footsteps right behind him, he dared not look behind him for fear of slowing down. Marco yelled out for help once more before realizing that the footsteps didn't sound like it belonged to only one person… but rather many! Marco suddenly saw the house of the man that had helped him before. Marco's whole body tried to use every bit of its strength to speed up in hopes of making it to the house, but in doing so left his footwork sloppy. The young man tripped over himself causing him to roll onto the floor and lose any chance to outrun his pursuers. Marco turned to see what was four of the monsters making its way to himself. The creatures were ready to pounce on top of him when, suddenly, he heard a single phrase… "Hamon Overdrive!" A blurred figure appeared in front of the boy delivering a kick, that seemed to radiate light, to the face of one of the monsters and sending it flying into a tree before bursting into flames. The figure quickly grabbed Marco by his hoodie's collar and dragged him closer to the house before letting him go and calmly walking towards the door of the house. Marco yelled at the man that three more of the monsters were attacking. But before he could say a word he saw the creatures stand a few feet from himself. The creature tried to reach for him before being hit by a bright white light and having its arm turn to dust. Marco searched to see what caused the light only to find flowers like ones he previously saw when he first entered this dimension. "Are you gonna listen to me this time and get into the house, or would you rather take your chances with those other three?" The old man said to Marco with an obvious amount of sarcasm in his voice. Marco simply got up and walked into the house once more, and almost instantly collapsed on the nearest piece of furniture.

==The Next Day==

Marco was on a couch close to the door. He sat there with a tired look in the eyes, he couldn't even remember how much sleep he got last night. The throbbing pain from his shattered hand and his mental anguish from his mistakes gnawed at his psyche throughout the night, making it nigh-impossible for him to sleep more than a few hours, let alone a full night sleep. "Let me guess… You didn't even get a wink of sleep did you boy?" a familiar voice said coming from behind Marco. He didn't need to turn around to know it was the old man who saved him the two times before. Marco was too tired to give a verbal response, and instead nodded his head to the man's comment. The man took a seat next to Marco looking him in the eyes for a moment. Marco couldn't get a clear look at the man before, but now with the man only a few feet away he could see some of the man's facial features. The man's most telling feature was his large grey mountain man beard, it was clear that in the past it was a simply handlebar mustache but due to passing time it grew out into what it was now along with the man's long ponytailed hair. The man also had a barely noticeable hook nose and had pale blue eyes. After a moment of quiet the man stood up and moved to be standing a few feet away from Marco's seat, while still facing Marco. "Stand up…" The man said almost as if ordering the teen to do so. Marco looked the man in the eye with a confused, Marco could barely talk and yet this man is asking him to stand up? The man held a firm look as if to hold what he said as something that needed to be done. Marco let loose an audible groan before using his uninjured hand to push himself up. It took well over a minute of struggling for Marco to get to his feet, once he could keep his stance he looked at the man and let loose a weak "what now?". The man quickly jabbed his pinky finger into Marco's diaphragm causing him to get the wind knocked out of him. Marco's legs threatened to give out, when the man suddenly used his other hand to keep him upright. "That's it let out all the air in your lungs…" Marco had no choice to but to comply, letting lose any stray breath in his lungs.

The man then removed his pinky from Marco's chest allowing him to breathe again. The moment Marco did so, he felt as if the damage in his hand and the lack of sleep was something his mind made up. Marco took a step back and moved what would have been his shattered hand. "H-how did y-you do that!" Marco stammered. "What just happened was that you used your own Hamon to heal your wounds." The man replied, "But why did you do that?" Marco asked the man. "I did it, so I can ask you questions and have you answer me without being half asleep and complanin' about your hand" The man said matter-of-factly as he crossed his arms. Marco looked the man in the eye before responding "And those questions would be?", The man looked the teen with a serious look before continuing "You were a reckless and short-sighted child running off like that, you could have easily gotten killed… and yet I saw you actually stand your ground for a brief moment with on of those beasts. Not many normal people can say they made a vampire stumble back with a simple blow, and yet you have, you even were able to avoid getting' cut to ribbons." Marco kept a straight face as he listened to the man talk trying not the interrupt the man, but quickly made a look as if he wanted to hear the question. The man then nodded and asked, "how badly do you wish to go home?" Marco without hesitation answered with a simple phrase "I would do anything." The man nodded his head before speaking again "If you wish to go home, you must be able to combat those creatures you faced last night, and to do that you must learn how to Master the use of Hamon. But to do so will take time, it can take months even years to master it along with intense physical and mental training to use it, your body could be battered and broken from a single day of training and I except you to do it again the next, and so I ask you once more. How badly do you wish to go home?" Marco didn't even have to think, he accepted the man's offer. The only thing Marco cared about was going home, if it meant spending another 16 years in an alien dimension, he would do it to see him friends and family. The man gave Marco a nod and a smile, "Good because we start your training… today!"


	4. Chapter 4

The sun was still touching the orange horizon when Marco and Antonio packed up supplies and started their hike to where Marco's training would take place. The journey was quiet as the two men walked on a dirt path that lead from the forest to a long road and stretched across small rolling hills. After a few minutes the path split into two, of which they took the left one. The walk from then on lasted about and hour before they reached their destination. The two stopped at the edge of a large pond surrounded by trees. Directly above the pond was a series of waterfalls that started at least over 100 meters up, the first waterfall fell from the top of structure onto rocks below it, which caused the water to flow to the right and onto another series of rocks. This was repeated for at least two more layers before the water reached the pond where the two were standing in front of.

Marco turned toward Antonio before asking him a question "is there a reason why you specifically brought me here to train?" The man didn't reply, instead he took off his shoes and rolled up his pant sleeves. He then walked into the pond. "Watch." The man said as he closed his eyes and started to breathe in an odd way. Marco simply watched the man as he was instructed, not really knowing what to except. After a few seconds the water around Antonio started to form ripples in the pond from where his legs were submerged under the water. At first the ripples were barely noticeable, but every second that past the ripples grew larger and larger until it became small waves. Antonio then picked up both his feet from the bottom of the pond to the surface and began to walk on top of the water to get back to the shore where Marco was.

"I brought you here, so we can use the water from the pond to see your progress" Antonio said as he stepped back on land. He then turned to look at Marco before continuing "When you are able to cause ripples in the water to appear from only your breathin' then we can truly start." Marco nodded in understanding before taking off his socks and shoes along with rolling up his pants. The two walked back into the pond a few meters from each other and turned to face each other's direction. "Now remember the first step in using hamon is to breath correctly, you must make sure you don't have any air in your lungs before you start," Marco nodded before letting out a long sigh in preparation for his lesson.

Marco's first attempts of hamon breathing failed to create any type of movement in the water at all, it took a few finger jabs and about three hours before he got a clear idea of how to produce hamon himself. However, the ripples he created were very faint, it would have been difficult to tell if the ripples came from his hamon or from his legs twitching had it not been for Antonio pointing it out. By that time however, Marco was having a lot of trouble keeping his breathe steady from what felt like hyperventilation, "I'm f-feeling a bit light-headed…" Marco said to the man. Antonio looked toward the sky, seeing that the sun was in the middle of the sky, before gesturing for Marco to follow him out of the pond.

As Marco followed suit, he asked them man what hamon really is and how it works. Antonio made his way under the nearest tree to take a seat. As Marco sits nearby the man, he gets a reply to his question, "Hamon is an energy used from the ancient martial art, Sendo. Also called the Way of The Hermit by some. This martial art allows the combatant to use their breathin' to create energy like that of the sun." Marco quickly responded with "So that's how you defeated those vampires! That Hamon you use is like hitting them with sunlight!" Antonio confirmed Marco's statement by nodding his head. "But don't think for a second that Hamon is simply used for punches and kicks. For those who spent their lives practicing with it, they were able to use hamon to affect the life-force of other livin' thin's. But for the most part and at its core, it was created to rid the world of undeath, and that is what I am have to teach you." Marco groans while he looked at the floor with a frustrated expression, "How am I gonna get that far when I'm struggling with making it in the first place…"

Antonio looked back at Marco and saw the discouraged look on his face. "Look, today's your first day. Don't expect to learn all of this stuff in an instant." The old man then placed his hand on the nearby tree. "It'll take years for you to do stuff like this…" Antonio then took in a deep breath before whispering "Life-Surge Overdrive" under his breath. In that instance, Marco saw how the tree's branches grew out a small bit and how the buds on them slowly became fruit in a matter of seconds. The growth continued until the buds became fully mature apples and suddenly dropped from the tree. The moment the apples fell Antonio caught one in mid-air, "Now here, eat somethin' so we can continue your trainin'". Marco still held his frustration in his head but pushed it aside and took the apple. He knew no matter how he feels about himself, he's doing this to get home and to do that he needed to focus. After Marco quickly ate the apple, he was on his feet and ready to continue his training with Antonio, this was the start of his long journey home.

Author's Note:

I'm really sorry for taking so much time in publishing this new chapter, A lot of it is self-doubt and not constantly working on it. I can't really say when the next chapter is gonna be up for sure, but I will hope It'll take less time than it took for this one. Also I have a quick and important question for you all... Do you want me to share the training Marco goes through, would you like only small peeks at it, or would you rather a time skip? Feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions in your reviews if you'd like. I really appreciate it, and have a great day.


	5. Chapter 5

==Unknown Location==

The room was filled with dim orange light provided by the many lit candle holders in the room. In the center of it all, held a throne carved from stone at the end of a long red carpet that was laid over stairs. The room was humongous, being over 60 feet tall and 120 feet wide, with it being held up by multiple stone pillars. The walls were ragged rocks of a cave and as was the ceiling. Sitting on the throne was a shaded man in a black robe, holding a glass of wine, as he read ancient tombs of unknown languages.

As the figure was about to take a drink of his wine a vampire slowly walked up to the throne and stopping just short of the first step on the stairs toward the throne, dropping to its knees and waiting for the figure's response. The deep and booming voice of the figure exuded throughout the room as he questioned the vampire kneeling before him "Why do you disturb my reading?" The vampire quickly pulls out a pair of pristine scissors from behind himself and laying it a few steps ahead of where he was kneeling, the vampire then quickly responded "Master, we found this object on the ground, it seemed to have been left behind by a human during one of our nightly hunts." The shadowy figure lifted his right hand, and in doing so caused the scissors to levitate from the ground and to move slowly toward himself.

Upon grabbing the pair of scissors from the air, the figure felt and examined the craftsmanship of the tool very meticulously. The room held an ominous silence for a solid minute as the figure looked over the tool with his fingertips. The man suddenly broke the long silence with a question to the vampire "Tell me, where is this human now?" while still holding the scissors in his delicate way. The vampire wasted no time in answering him, "The human escaped with the help of… _him_ , my lord." The figure stopped his examination of the scissors as his servant spoke, and the moment they finished their sentience, a nearly impossible to see smile appeared on his face. "Ah, so he shows himself after all these years. It seems he was hiding out in the forest, just as I had predicted." The shaded man said aloud to himself. The vampire hesitated for a second before asking a question "Master, should I ready the other men?" The figure's smile grew ever larger as he held up the scissors in front of him. "No, I have a sneaking suspicion that he'll be coming to us" the man said, "But do send out the scouts, I wish to know for what reason he saved the human's life for." The vampire quickly replied with a "Yes sir!" before standing up and leaving both the throne room, and the cloaked man in the dim orange light...

==The Pond & Waterfall==

Marco and Antonio's training was passing by faster and faster, hours turned into days and days into weeks, all with Marco's knowledge of hamon growing with it. The basics were instilled within that time. The 3rd week of training was like most other days by the pond and waterfall, the two started their warm-up breathing with the two right next to each other in a sitting meditative position. The two of them let out an audible exhale, before the two got to their feet to start their training. The two walked into the shallow end of the pond, where the water reached their ankles, to start off with a brief sparring session.

Marco started off the match with a quick right jab to attempt to pressure the old man back, Antonio responded with a simple parry with the palm of his left hand, upon contact a faint electrical sound rang out, causing Marco to be to be pushed toward his left side do to his redirected momentum. Quickly realizing he's off footing, Marco made a short dash backwards to regain his stance but, as he attempted to correct himself, Antonio dashed forward to capitalize on the teen's mistake and launched a jab. At first Marco saw the distance at which the old man threw the jab and thought the attack was too far away to land, but quickly realized that Antonio's arm had shot out of its socket to reach him. Marco was able to move the slightest inch in response, but that inch was enough to dodge the majority of the attack, leaving only a single knuckle to brush against Marco's cheek. Once again a faint electrical sound rang out as the hamon-charged knuckle cut through the small amount of Marco's cheek it made contact with. Marco retaliated by quickly taking a step closer and delivering an elbow uppercut to the old man. As the elbow was about to make contact, a faint electrical sound rang out, the old man was barely able to move out of the way of the attack. Antonio then attempted to counterattack with a straight knee kick to Marco's stomach. Marco saw the attack and lifted his knee to meet head on with Antonio's. As the two attacks made made contact, a very loud ringing sound could be heard before a strong gust of wind came from the area of contact, leaving waves to be formed in the pond, and a slight breeze moving the leaves of the nearby trees. Both opponents made a quick backwards dash to take a breather.

Marco took a deep breath, in doing so, causing the small cut on his cheek to close up and saw that his sparring partner was unharmed. Marco let out a disappointed sigh before noticing Antonio lifting his hand up to signify that they would stop their small exchange in order to start their training for the day. "You've certainly gotten good at the basics of hamon, you're not as slow as you were before, perhaps in a few weeks you can actually land a hit on me" the Old man said with a smug smile. "But, today we will focus on the more technical usage of hamon, these aren't like the basics, these require finesse rather than brute force" the old man said with a stern voice as Marco nodded his head in comprehension.

"Now, this one should be simple." Antonio said to Marco "all you need to do is use your hamon…" the man then lifting his feet from the bottom of the shallow pond and rested them on top of the surface of the water "to stand on the water". Marco looked at how the man was casually standing on top of the water as if it were natural "I guess that does seems simple enough…" the teen said before taking in a breath.

Marco took a few seconds to find a steady breathing rhythm before lifting his left leg out of the water and placing it gently to the surface of the water. As Marco's toes made contact on the water, a faint static could be heard, and made the water feel as solid as concrete. Marco slowly pushed his whole body out of the water with the ball of his foot, as the teen pulled his seconds foot out of the water, he then slowly let his left foot lay flat on the water. However, the moment the left foot's heel made contact with the surface, Marco's foot sank to the bottom of the lake. Marco was perplexed, he was felt the water become solid for a moment but then he simply fell through for seemingly no reason. Marco repeats what he did before, he focuses his breath, he picks up his leg, he pushes himself out of the water by the ball of his foot, and just like last time as he lowers his foot's heel to the water's surface he falls through.

The teen looked toward Antonio, he saw the old man with his arms crossed as if impatiently waiting for Marco quickly get the hang of it, Marco looked down toward his feet. In that moment it suddenly clicked in Marco's head. Once again Marco lifted his left leg and made sure to use only the ball of his foot as he stood on the water, the familiar sound of hamon ringing out as he does so, and then quickly did the same with the his other foot. "Glad I didn't have to explain that one to you" Antonio remarked as he began to walk toward the deeper parts of the pond "Now, let's see how you do with keeping yourself up on a vertical surface".

Author's note: Hey guys, I want to ask all of you a question. Do you guys like the shorter chapter releases or would you rather them to be longer? It won't really effect when they come out, but if you guys want more in each chapter, say like... 3000 words or more please tell me, otherwise I will keep the chapters under 2000.


End file.
